There are only a handful of Big Three auto execs in the sightline of the gearhead nation, and Ralph Gilles (sounds like “Jeel”) is one of ’em. He’s the CEO of the SRT brand (Street and Racing Technology, the performance division responsible for the Viper, among others) and the Senior Vice President of Design at Chrysler LLC. He stands out as a legit car guy--more into T-shirts than business suits--and a skilled driver. He swears he reads HOT ROD cover to cover every month (How? “I spend a lot of time in planes.”)

2/5

Ralph has been with Chrysler since he was 22 in 1992, became a director in 2000, got a business degree at Michigan State in 2003, and has been VP of Design since 2008. He ran Dodge for a few years and has led SRT since 2011. He’s worked for a stream of big names: Designer Tom Gale, and CEOs/Presidents/Chairmen Tom LaSorda, Dieter Zetsche, Robert Nardelli, and Sergio Marchionne.

The man is also outspoken, so we looked forward to this off-the-cuff interview, with no P.R. guy hanging around to filter us, during a recent track day with Ralph’s latest baby, the new SRT Viper TA (Time Attack).

The ’14 Viper TA (for Time Attack) is a limited edition: 93 will be in TA Orange, 33 in Venom Black, and 33 in Bright White. More importantly, the package includes track-tuned upgrades such as new spring rates (up 20 percent), dual-mode Bilstein dampers, sway bars (solid, and 35 percent stiffer), and upgraded brakes (same diameter rotors, but larger pads). Also included is the Advanced Aerodynamics Package, said to increase downforce by 300 pounds at speed for stability. It also has a track-specific alignment from the factory. The Pirelli P Zero Corsa meats--P295/30ZR18 (front) and P355/30ZR19 (rear)--are said to have the “largest contact patch in the production-car world.” Get out your $118,000!

3/5

HRM] What’s the question you’re sick of being asked?

RG] What my favorite car is. I hate that. They always ask me that, and some of my favorite cars aren’t from our company. I also believe it depends on the mood. I’m jealous of people who have multiple cars, because some days you feel different. The cars I tend to be attracted to are the cars that have evidence of passion. If you can sense the [design and engineering] team’s passion through the product, then it might not be perfect, but at least it has passion.

HRM] There’s very little of that out there these days.

RG] Oh, yeah. There’s a lot of soulless cars.

HRM] Even the new Jeep Cherokee…

RG] …Hey, easy there [laughs]…

HRM] …no, what I’m saying is, you know, it’s controversial looking, but it’s obvious somebody tried to do something there, take a risk.

RG] Yeah, it’s one of the biggest risks I’ve taken as a designer, but that’s a sign of my boss Sergio [Marchionne], who’s a risk-taker and pushed me to push my team to go crazy--not crazy, I shouldn’t say crazy because it’s well thought out. If you really study that [Cherokee], there’s a lot to it. There’s a lot more than a funny face; it has a certain flare that’s unique and stands out in the very, very crowded crossover market.

HRM] No one talks about the predictable car.

RG] Exactly.

HRM] So now, what’s the question you wish people would ask?

RG] Well, it’s more that there’s a danger in being a car guy sometimes, like I’m one-dimensional and only care about going fast. But I have a lot of respect for what’s happening with, say, Tesla for example; I’m a fan of alternative propulsion. I’m a big fan of the connected car. I like art; I like music; I like anything that’s well designed. As a car guy, you just get labeled as just a gearhead.

HRM] OK, but what’s the danger these days in cars being marketed by their connectivity and greenie value versus horsepower and performance? Is that a danger for SRT?

RG] Not really. I think the thrill of performance [will always be there]. You could have had this conversation back in the ’70s with OPEC going berserk, and people were scared about the automotive industry, and everybody was downsizing engines; I remember when the Trans Am had 170 hp or something like that. Like, it’s over, it’s done, performance cars are dead. But look at us now. We’re talking about 600hp cars today. I think in the past the car was more romantic than it is today, but the ones who do love them love it harder. These country-club racetracks are going up all over the place, so it becomes a bit like the prohibition era. People are still enjoying their stuff; they’re just doing it differently. Also, we have four-cylinder cars now, which is new for SRT, and we have eight-speed transmissions, we have active suspension, and we have technology that’s giving you the ability to have your cake and eat it, too.

HRM] Even if it’s an electric car?

RG] There will be an SRT electric car some day. Guarantee it. But it’ll still put a grin on your face.

HRM] A while ago you called me out for a blog on HOTROD.com where we basically said that Viper was out of touch with the regular hot rodder. So now’s your chance. What’s the comeback?

RG] Actually, you’re one of the first publications that gets the [hot rodding] dimension to the Viper. Yeah, Viper has a big story in road racing, but despite that, some people don’t realize it’s a handling car, not a straight-line car. And within our owners are many hot rodders who have just grown up and have more to spend. They’re probably the same guys who did burnouts in front of their high school, then did the muscle-car thing. Maybe then had a 5.0 Mustang but fell in love with the Viper, and now they have one. They are hot rodding even a $100,000 car. They are doing the same things to make it faster: turbos, Paxtons, superchargers, all kinds of bore-and-stroke and headers. The Viper is so elegantly simple, that stuff works.

HRM] And SRT put forged pistons in it this year because…boost…or?

RG] Well, you know, we can’t exactly endorse that, but…it is a 502ci engine and you’ve got a lot to work with.

HRM] I’ve seen you talk about how you think boost is not a good thing for a track car. You’ve said that, haven’t you?

RG] Well, the trick with boost…badly done boost is not a good thing. A lot of track cars I’ve driven--we have a lot of competitive benchmark vehicles--whether it’s supercharging or turbocharging, they tend to thermally saturate and they don’t do a great job cooling the vehicles, so they run good on the first lap, and maybe the second lap, but then they derate. They pull spark advance, then they lose power. They fall on their faces. Heat saturation, we’ve had that with a lot of our competitors’ supercharged vehicles. So if we ever do one, we’re going to do it right and make sure it has more than enough cooling. In terms of turbo lag, modern turbos are very quick so they don’t have that. I used to have an SRT-4, and it was a tricky car to road race. You had to start accelerating before the apex in a game of catching the turbo lag. A modern turbocharger, you don’t see that.

4/5

HRM] In the old muscle-car days, horsepower really sold cars. Today, is it horsepower, handling, or top speed that’s most important to the enthusiast customer?

RG] Horsepower. As much as [road-race] tracks are popular, there’s still a small percentage of people who can extract the most from the car.

HRM] So horsepower is really important to sales, and you know Ford and Chevy are way ahead of you there.

RG] Horsepower wars have always been part of the battle. It used to be a Big Three thing, now I think it’s a Big Five, Big Six thing with these other OEs…Nissan, even Ferrari, which is already on its own planet, in a way. But usable horsepower is the next big discussion. I like to talk power-to-weight. We have Viper that’s in the top three on horsepower-to-weight ratio, in the TA currently, and that’s what you feel every day. We have a situation where, you know--we may have a situation--where the flagship car is not the most powerful car in our arsenal; how do we explain that to ourselves? So we have an internal horsepower race as well as an external one.

HRM] That’s the closest you’ve been to an admission [that the new Challenger SRT will be supercharged]. A few minutes ago, I told you we did a three-way shootout, and in a mile and a half, the Challenger was slower than the Camaro and the Mustang. You told me, “come back next year.”

RG] Ha…yeah.

HRM] Is that the end of that statement?

RG] Yup.

HRM] What happens in 2018 when CAFE hits [and potentially kills horsepower due to government mpg requirements]?

RG] It’s hitting now. The way CAFE works, we’re banking credits now; even from three years ago. That’s why at SRT we’ve changed our business model to work on less volume. We could make three times more Grand Cherokee SRTs and still sell them, but we’re truncating the volume on purpose to manage CAFE, but also to be sure we can command a premium. Thank God we have the mother ship to balance us out. Viper is small enough to be insignificant to CAFE but still be iconic and give us bragging rights.

HRM] In new-car design, when is retro going to wear off?

RG] Sigh…it’s kinda now. If you look, it’s retro-modern now. I think the last few years it was truly retro, directly capturing the past. Look at, like, the new Jaguar F-series; it’s retro proportioned, but it’s very new. I think the Viper’s the same way. It’s respecting our heritage but not relying on it.

HRM] So is the next Challenger still going to look like a ’70 Challenger?

RG] Mmmmmaybe…[laughs]. But that’s a special car. I think the Challenger is our place to enjoy heritage. That’s why I like working at Chrysler: We have 23 or more nameplates, and there’s times when we’re futuristic because we know customers like that, and other time’s we’re heritage. The next Charger’s going to be much more futuristic than a throwback. And the Dart clearly has nothing to do with the old car.

HRM] Yeah, so why retread that Dart name? Can’t we come up with a new legend instead?

RG] Ah, yeah, but I think the name thing is fun. Don’t make too much of it. To some kids, it’s a new name.

HRM] Then Mopar just reintroduced the ’69–’71 “Scat Pack” name for its performance packages.

RG] To some that means a lot. To others it means nothing. If people research it, it’s a very quick way for us to tell a very long story.

HRM] You are so vocal on Twitter. I don’t know of another auto exec who’s as mouthy in social media. Has that been good or bad?

RG] I don’t know what you mean by “mouthy.” Should I take offense to that? [Laughs] If you look carefully at what I Tweet about, it’s usually current things. It’s rare that I get into contretemps with other people. That only happened, like, three times in the past two years.

HRM] That’s three times more than any other auto exec! [When Donald Trump claimed that Chrysler was sending Jeep manufacturing to China, Ralph Tweeted. “You’re full of $%#@!”]

RG] I can’t suppress my passion. I think it’s fun, and I take it tongue-in-cheek. Recently it was with the Edmunds guy, and then Donald Trump, sheez. That one…I don’t know what happened there.

HRM] Of course, the third scene was with Motor Trend. The magazine is basically taking credit for forcing you to build the new Viper TA track car after Randy Pobst outran the Viper GTS with a Corvette at Laguna Seca. What’s your spin?

RG] We were going to do a TA anyway; it was always in the plan. What frustrated me about that is the GTS wasn’t meant to go be a track car. It’s capable and it’s great, but the [Corvette] ZR1 with those tires is almost a track-dedicated car. We hadn’t had a chance to talk about the TA yet, so they were kind of unfairly pitting us against a car that had dedicated track tires. And it’s kind of our fault. The car we gave them was not the best submission. We’ve fixed that.

HRM] So did Motor Trend really force you to move up that TA program, or are they patting themselves on the back too much?

RG] I think they forced us to show it before we wanted to. But it was always in the plan.

HRM] What SRT product will be most worthy of being in a museum in 50 years?

RG] I think the Viper, but which generation is a good discussion. Obviously, the first Viper still to this day was a very unusual car to have happened.

HRM] Anything else you want to touch on?

RG] That was fun, thanks. Tell people the Viper is built in Detroit by passionate guys. They have Viper tats and everything.